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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28763115">Galactic Grouping Logs</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/94worms/pseuds/94worms'>94worms</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alien/Human Relationships, Anatomy, Belly Kink, Belly Rubs, Eggpreg, Enthusiastic Consent, I'm Bad At Tagging, Interplanetary Travel, M/M, Multi, Oviposition, Science, Sex Education</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:34:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,278</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28763115</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/94worms/pseuds/94worms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the result of me having too much free time. </p><p>Basically there's aliens and they're learning about humans, and vice versa. You get some world building, and you get some hot alien sex. If you're here for ovipositon, check out chapter 3.</p><p>AUTHOR IS A TRANS MAN!!!! <br/>there is a trans male character in this story who uses pussy/womb/uterus as words to describe genitalia, so be warned.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. An Overview - Dr. Sven Langston</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 1<br/>
Dr. Sven Langston, Naturalist and exobiologist</p><p>Since the discovery of and contact with intelligent alien life, our relationship with these beings has shifted dramatically. As of now, Earth is going through the process of formally entering the Galactic Grouping, which will formally grant us the rights and authority to be on an even playing field with extraterrestrial governments on an interplanetary stage. It's quite exciting. For decades now we've pretty much had these privledges anyway, we're just making it official. But the sociopolitical ramifications of discovering intelligent life of many kinds on multiple planets isn't my job to discuss. It's the biology, the anatomy and physiology that I'm interested in. </p><p>Since we made contact, exobiologists before me have been communicating back and forth with their extraterrestrial counterparts. We've traded cadavers, we've gone to each other's medical schools, ect, ect. But it really hasn't been all that long. Fifty years is a long time, but we humans have been trying to figure out the human body for millennia and we still don't really understand it. So you can understand the massive intrigue we have with our interplanetary friends.</p><p>I guess since this is my first log, I'll cover the extraterrestrials that Humans have the best relationship with so far: the Orckeks. </p><p>Orckeks have very low sexual dimorphism. Males and females share basically the same traits with the exception of their internal and external genitalia. They stand at about 5 to 7 feet tall on their hind legs, but rarely go up to that full height due to preferring to walk on four limbs. They are highly adapted for climbing and life in their tree-like plants, as well as life in and near the water. They have hands similar to that of a chameleon: two mirror image hands coming from each wrist. They differ from chameleons because each hand has six fingers that are strong and very precise. Their hindlimbs have two large claws connected to a rough pad that helped them dig into plants as they climbed back before their civilizations began.<br/>
Orckeks are generally regarded as water and land dwelling. They require water to reproduce (for the most part), and spend fairly equal time in and out of the water, although in the modern era many choose to spend more time out of it. Their skin is extremely thick and tough, ranging in color from various natural greens and blues to deep brown, and does not act to exchange gases like that of a frog. Instead, the Orckeks have both lungs and gills, which they can use to breathe with independently.<br/>
As for body shape, Orckeks look incredibly strange, at least to most humans. To be real with you, if I were not a biologist I would find them fairly upsetting. They have short tails and long hind legs similar in structure to that of a housecat, but much longer. Their torsos are shorter than that of a human and their gills line the sides of their torso. They have arms with the aforementioned split hands. Their heads are shaped similarly to that of a human or ape, but are more.... how do I even explain this? Their heads are more triangular in shape, if viewed from the side. Their faces are thinner as well, and they have flat noses. Their diet is almost exclusively plant based, so they have many wide, flat teeth. Additionally, both males and females have two protruding lower teeth that act as tusks. This is a sign of maturity, as juveniles do not have these tusks.</p><p>Orckeks have hair, albeit not a whole lot of it. A trail of thick, bristley hair similar to that of a bear or a boar runs from the bridge of the Orckek's nose to the tip of the tail, running along the spine. This hair can grow to a length of about a foot, but Orckeks trim this hair regularly to a length of about four or five inches. Orckeks have boar-like or pig-like ears, and have very good hearing. Their natural eyesight, however, is not as good as humans.</p><p>Orckeks have about as much knowledge of humans as we do of them, which is to say, a basic understanding. I was privledged enough to be part of the learning process, which works in possibly the most awkward manner possible. There are two teams of scientists: one human team, one alien team, in this case, Orckek. One human and one alien both volunteer to be subject to diagnostic tests, and essentially just stand or lie there while the opposite team does their diagnostics. Both humans and aliens conduct their experiments at the same time, in the same room, and with a translator present, so that the test subject is able to articulate if something is not right, and so the alien teams can ask questions. </p><p>I was a test subject. In all honesty it wasn't all that bad. Very awkward, though. The head scientist from the alien team asked me if I could show them my gills, to which I explained I did not have any. The scientist went on to say "yes you do, your kind can swim." My team vouched for me on that one. I was also asked to describe "mating rituals". </p><p> </p><p>"Do you mean breeding or courting?"</p><p>"Intercourse."</p><p>"Males of our species have a penis and testes. These are the external genitalia. The testes produce haploid gametes called sperm. The male inserts his penis into the female's vagina. Actually, I think I'm doing a bad job of describing this, hang on."  I ended up having my team pull up some diagrams to be shown to the alien team. Watching seven terrifying pig-frog-monkey looking creatures frantically take notes on a sex ed video made for highschool kids was easily the most amusing part of the day.</p><p>I know some of the most prominent Orckek language, at least enough to get by in a scientific sense. My pronunciation is awful, but so is theirs, so we're even.  This came in handy on several occasions, my favorite being the making of friends from other planets.</p><p>The test subject from the Orckek group was an exobiologist, just like me. Between study breaks, we sat together and tried to communicate. He spoke no Human language, I spoke a decent amount of Orckek, so it went pretty well.</p><p>"How is my team treating you?" I asked. He seemed surprised I could speak his language.</p><p>"Good," he replied, "it's not comfortable. They ask the strangest questions. It seems obvious to me, but it's not to humans. I'm sure your experience has been the same."</p><p>"It has been. But it's fascinating, and I'm more than happy to teach." I replied. " What's your name? I'm called Sven." </p><p>"Ghargu. It's great to meet you and to form a friendship." Ghargu was eating something while talking to me. It was definitely something plant based, but I couldn't tell what kind of plant it was. Before I could even begin to ask, he spoke again. "You know, my team is working on an exchange project, we're going to pitch it to your higher ups soon. One human will come to our planet to live with us for one year, and one Orckek will go to your planet for the same duration. We'll learn about each other's cultures."</p><p>"That sounds amazing," I said. "Actually, our team was going to pitch something similar to your higher ups soon as well." </p><p>Eventually, these plans were pitched, and a new plan was created. A human team would go to MX0FF for two years and live in four different Orckek towns/settlements, and an Orckek team would do the same on Earth. The Orckeks would end up spending half a year in New York City, half a year in Dubai, half a year in an undisclosed rural area of southeast Asia, and half a year checking out the Amazon rainforest and surrounding human settlements. The human team would go to two major Orckek cities, a common rural area, and a site of large amounts of biodiversity.  I used to live in NYC, and seeing actual extraterrestrials living there would not be the weirdest thing I've seen happen in that place. There is a reason I moved out.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A New Mission - Dr. Sven Langston</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 2<br/>
Dr. Sven Langston, naturalist and exobiologist</p><p> </p><p>The exchange was pretty great. The Orckeks came down to Earth first, since we'd been closer to Earth during our studies at the time, plus, the Orckek's ship needed some major repairs after a less than successful docking with our ship a month prior. Getting the Orckek team on board was a feat in and of itself. Orckeks sleep submerged in water or mud, usually in communal pools. To accommodate this, the human crew drew straws to see who's bunk was going to become the Mud Pit. It was mine. I spent the week long journey back to Earth sleeping in a really cool hammock in the Captain's room. </p><p> </p><p>Orckeks find human sleeping places just as disgusting as we find theirs, if that matters at all. Ghargu said something along the lines of "it's a breeding ground for pests, and you can only fit one or two people in such a large space comfortably. No wonder your people get skin conditions so easily."  I explained that his skin was over four times thicker than ours and so really, that's probably the reason, but he wouldn't have it. </p><p>Oh, I should probably introduce you to our teams.</p><p>The Humans:</p><p>-Sven Langston (that's me! Resident exobiologist and decent repairman. I can speak 3 ish extraterrestrial languages, if you count my barely conversational Kopolodian.)<br/>
-Martha Partridge (our beloved captain and navigator)<br/>
-Kendra Monroe (our co-pilot who is also phenomenal with ship repairs)<br/>
-Ahmed Jackson (another biologist,much smarter than I, in his opinion. He specializes in botany, and in that regard, I agree with him.)<br/>
- Lin Zexian ( A medical doctor with a PhD in astrobiology, my most treasured colleague)<br/>
- Yi Lian (A wonderfully kind woman with PhDs in botany and anthropology.)<br/>
- Sangita Goj (by far our planet's most talented translator. To my knowledge she is fluent in no less than 10 Earth languages and 16 extraterrestrial ones. She is by all accounts a genius and a prodigy. Also does anthropology.)<br/>
- Paolo  Pareja (Another translator, however he is also very skilled in biology.)</p><p> </p><p>The Orckeks:</p><p>Ghargu (I'm almost certain he's the main repairman / engineer, and has some kind of exobiology background.)<br/>
Sintraii (Definitely the pilot.)<br/>
Yrthon (Translator.)<br/>
Zoe (Translator, extremely into it. She changed her name out of her love of human language. Does anthropology as well.)<br/>
Jirre (Botanist? Biologist? Naturalist? I don't know.)<br/>
Da'atnm (Biologist)<br/>
Ungrth (Biologist)<br/>
Oet ( anthropologist)</p><p>These are phonetic recreations of their names, we don't have Orckek keyboards. </p><p>We landed in New York Intergalactic SpacePort on a cold winter day. Getting coats and hats for the alien team was an interesting process. Orckeks live in a pretty hot climate, with their equator being uninhabitably hot. They were not used to this cold, and space suits were out of the question. Zoe insisted on the human experience. Seeing eight extraterrestrials in comically sized coats and hats was pretty incredible. Pants did not fit them, trust me, we tried. On their planet, most Orckeks wear something akin to shorts that's main function is to cover and protect the genitalia, but not much else except for ceremonial purposes or formal events.</p><p>The Orckeks shared four apartments amongst themselves and our team. Luckily for our budget, the US government forced the landlord to waive fees for the stay. I roomed with Paolo, Ghargu, and Ungrth.<br/>
Right off the bat, they were overwhelmed, amazed, and had hundreds of questions.<br/>
"What's that?" Asked Ungrth, pointing at a guy on a motorbike.<br/>
"It's a motorcycle. It's a form of transportation powered by electricity. A long time ago, they were powered by fossil fuels." Paolo explained. We saw a hot dog cart, and Ghargu asked me if people actually eat those. I responded yes, they do. I don't know for sure but I think he almost threw up.</p><p>We went through the process of explaining what everything in the apartment was, at least the stuff that wasn't on the ship. Tap water, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, refrigerator. We explained the food we bought and made sure to organize it into "Orckek safe" and "human safe", just to make sure. Turns out, caffeine is deadly to Orckeks if ingested, so no chocolate or coffee. </p><p>"Is it harmful for you to eat meat?" I asked Ghargu.</p><p>"Not in small amounts, no." He said. "But I don't want to. When I was young, my sibling made me eat a bug. It was very bad tasting."</p><p>"You guys are going to try meat. We'll try your weird vegetables when we go to your planet, so you're trying hot dogs."</p><p>"Oh, no. No no no." He insisted. Oet and Zoe were over at our apartment as well, and they weren't listening to the conversation to back Ghargu up, much to his dismay. They were scribbling notes down while watching some cooking show on TV. "The smell of that is nasty. Even some humans won't eat it. Veagans. Vegans? I think that's what they're called."</p><p>"Yeah. But you guys can't just stay here for two years and only eat space food and broccoli. You have to try new things, as long as they won't kill you." I closed the refrigerator and threw a crown of broccoli at him, which he caught. Broccoli had been a crowd favorite with the Orckeks, because it apparently tasted similar to a common water plant from their planet. I for one do not enjoy the vegetable all that much, so I was not much looking forward to the cuisine on my next trip off planet. Oh, who am I kidding, that's bullshit. Of course I was excited. MX0FF was one of my favorite planets to visit. I'd only been there for a couple months the time I went, though, and it was in a human embassy. I was ready to see the real deal.</p><p>"I will eat what I want, thank you."</p><p>"Ok, fine. But you have to get a tattoo."</p><p>"Deal."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Alien Sex - Dr. Paolo Pareja</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Alien sex / ovipositon in this one.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 3<br/>
Dr. Sven Langston, naturalist and exobiologist.</p><p>Booking an appointment with a tattoo artist for an alien was very interesting. The artist was absolutely amazed by the whole thing; Orckeks don't usually hang out in NYC, believe it or not. The few that are on-planet are usually in remote areas doing geologic research, in the embassies, or are having what I assume is the time of their lives in academia. I was aware previously, however, that there are a number of extraterrestrial refugees from a star system that had a serious collision with an asteroid living in America. They're regrouping, repopulating, and looking for a new planet, currently. Anyway, back to the tattoo shop.</p><p>Ghargu was the only Orckek this artist had ever tattooed. When I explained to the artist that his skin was incredibly thick, probably twice the thickness of human skin, the artist said that there was a good chance the tattoo would end up not being permanent. Ghargu was okay with that.</p><p>He went for a map of the continents of earth, no color, just a black outline, across his upper arm. Unsurprisingly, it didn't really hurt him at all. The artist ended the session by saying he had no idea how to advise Ghargu about aftercare, and we all laughed about it for a while. </p><p>"Hotdogs are next," I said to my alien friend.</p><p>"No!!! I said I'm not putting that anywhere near my mouth." He replied.</p><p>"Oh come on… you can even use this conversation to coerce me into eating food from your planet later." </p><p>"... Okay."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 4<br/>
Dr. Paolo Pareja, Biologist</p><p>I have some explaining to do, I know, despite the fact that I could attribute this entire situation to scientific curiosity and over-dedication to my work. Just hear me out.</p><p>Sven and Ghargu went out to do god knows what, and I had been in the middle of a conversation with Jirre about… something. I don't remember. But somehow the conversation switched to reproductive biology. </p><p>"With you humans it's so simple," he'd said. "With us it's not. You are lucky."</p><p>"Simple? I don't know about simple." I said. "Our gestation period is nine months- nine!- and then gender roles and identities play a role in courting, and there's a lot of confusion. I'd know, I'm transgender." Jirre had already learned what transgender meant from Sven, who had explained it better than I could have, to be honest. A real ally. </p><p>"You have one way to produce offspring, though." He explained. "Penis to vagina, that's it. It works. And with us there's several ways, and all of them are more complicated than that."</p><p>"Care to explain what that's supposed to mean?" I asked. Of course, I knew the biology from an anatomical standpoint. I wanted to hear the cultural side of it.</p><p>"Well…. sure." He replied. "So basically we have three sexes. Something akin to your males, something akin to your females, and a third sex that possess the ability to self fertilize if they so choose to. To produce offspring through sexual means, a male and a female, a male and a third sex, a third sex and a third sex, or a female and a third sex must engage in intercourse.</p><p>Our males possess two main sexual organs; a phallus (which retracts into the body while not in use,) and an internal organ that produces and stores eggs-"</p><p>"Wait," I said. "Hold on. So if your males make eggs, wouldn't that make them female?"</p><p>"Listen man," Jirre sighed, "I think I know more about this than you." </p><p>"Point taken." </p><p>"As I was saying, they have an organ that stores and produces eggs. This organ connects to the phallus. Unlike humans, the phalluses only purpose is ovipositon, it is not used for elimination. Elimination is handled by the cloaca, which the opening of is located slightly below the phallus sheath. The phallus is inserted into the correct oriface, secretes a substance that relaxes the egg fertilizing organ and stimulates it to expand, and deposits eggs into that organ.</p><p>Females do not have an egg production organ or a phallus. Instead, they only posses a cloaca, which has two openings, one to the end of the digestive system and one to an organ that stores and fertilizes eggs deposited by the male or third sex. After they are fertilized, they are incubated there for two or three weeks before they are laid, usually in a hole in the mud, but also could be laid in an artificial receptacle if no mud is available. The eggs are left there and hatch into larvae around seven months later. They begin life fully aquatic and self sufficient, and emerge from the waters after two years as essentially toddlers. At this point, they sort of lose their self sufficiency and require adult supervision.</p><p>Our third sex possesses both a phallus, an egg producing organ, an egg fertilizing organ, and a cloaca. They can take either role, and can technically self fertilize but the offspring always turn out weird, so it's really frowned upon."</p><p>"Woah." I said, pretending like I'd never heard this before. I'd really wanted a cultural explanation, but I didn't think I was going to get it out of him. "Ok, that does sound really complicated." </p><p>"Well, you can talk to Oet for more information. They know much more about the cultural stuff than I do. I'm what your kind would call a nerd."</p><p>That was the beginning of this mess.</p><p>I decided to go see Oet right away. I was truly fascinated from a scientific and anthropological perspective, I swear.  Sexual reproduction and raising of children is such a meaningful thing that has so many societal rules and ramifications behind it, at least for humans, and I was interested in knowing how it was off-world. I know that sounds like bullshit but you just need to trust me.</p><p>I grabbed my notepad and a pen and made the short journey across the hall to Oet's apartment, where Martha, Yi, and Zoe were also staying. </p><p>Before I go any further I feel as though it's important to mention what our work in NYC consists of. For about 90% of the daylight hours, we're out in the city explaining things to extraterrestrials and making sure they don't get killed. Every day, we get an extraterrestrial partner and take them around to different locations where we're pretty sure they'll learn something about humans. We aren't just sitting around in apartments all day. At the time this event occurred, I was done for the day. I'd taken Jirre out to go check out Central Park, and spent a good two hours talking to him about squirrels. We also got ice cream. Jirre absolutely hated it. Back to the topic at hand.</p><p>Martha, Yi, and Zoe. Right. Well, none of them answered the door, and I knew they weren't going to. The humans had taken Zoe to see a movie, and presumably the nightclub she'd been interested in seeing.</p><p>"Oet?" I called after knocking. "You in there?" No response. I took out my communication device (CD, we call them) and contacted Oet, to make sure I wasn't standing outside an empty apartment like a dumbass. It rang for barely a second before they picked up.</p><p>"...What?" Oet sounded tired and upset.</p><p>"Are you-"</p><p>"Yes I'm in the apartment."</p><p>"Can I come in?" I asked. "I need to talk to you about something."</p><p>"Um." They said. "Are you sure you want to? Jirre told you about... it, right?"</p><p>Stop. Freeze frame.  This is where shit got real. This miscommunication. Now, you understand my confusion, correct? Considering that I had just talked to Jirre about a thing, and wanted more information about said thing, it would make sense to a human brain to connect those two dots. Oet seems tired and upset, and to me, I assumed they were just cranky and didn't want to explain stuff to me right now, especially because they thought that Jirre had already explained it.<br/>
In Oet's mind, they thought my next comment was referring to their current biophysical state.</p><p>"Yeah, but that's why I need your help." I said, foolishly. "I actually asked Jirre, and he told me to come to you." Oet was silent for a full ten seconds and then hung up on me. While a little confused, my first reaction was annoyance. How unprofessional! They're here on an alien planet to learn and they can't spare a couple minutes to explain their society to me? But my annoyance soon faded when the apartment door unlocked and Oet opened it, hiding most of their body behind the metal of the door. They stared at me with an unreadable expression, then licked their weird little double hand and smushed it onto the outside of the door, before grabbing my arm and pulling me in, locking the door behind us. </p><p>"Thanks, Oet." I said, taking off my shoes. I know that Martha and Yi hate it when people wear shoes in the apartment. Oet watched me with great interest. "So, I wanted to ask you a few questions related to sexual reproduction of your species, and the-" I didn't even get through my sentence before Oet stood up to their full height, which was shorter than me, but was still a rare occurrence inside the apartment. Usually the Orckeks like to use their arms to help walk short distances, but when we're walking long distances they'll just use their back legs. "Are you okay?" </p><p>"More than okay." Oet said, stepping closer to me. I backed up when they got a little too close, up against the door. "Please. Please, please follow me." They backed off, scampering into their bedroom. Confused and admittedly aroused, I followed. To accommodate the Orckeks' need for damp sleeping conditions but also not absolutely destroy the apartment, we'd compromised with the addition of an extra bathtub into one of the bathrooms and designated it the Orckek Sleeping Chambers. Oet practically dragged me over to their bathtub before realizing I wasn't going to fit into it with them, which was evidently what they wanted me to do. Believe it or not, I was still oblivious.</p><p>"I'm not going to fit in there with you," I said.</p><p>"Martha's room." They said, scampering off in that direction now. The sudden switch into English threw me off. Their accent was kind of adorable, their tusks got a little in the way of speaking. I followed behind them. Oet pulled the blanket on Martha's bed, forming it into a sort of nest shape. "Lock the door." I locked the door. They pulled me into the nest of blankets and pulled at my jacket with their hands, evidently not seeing the zipper. My heart started to beat a little faster as I realized what was going on, now.</p><p>Part of me realized that having sexual intercourse with your close colleague was probably unprofessional.<br/>
But a larger part of me was really horny. So you can see the problem here. I unzipped my jacket, and Oet pulled off my shirt.</p><p>"Hey, Oet," I said, in English. "Slow your roll for a minute. I'm down for this, but you're acting really out of character. Are you okay? Like seriously."</p><p>"I thought you said Jirre told you?" Oet said, tugging at my pants absentmindedly. </p><p>"Jirre just told me about basic anatomy and stuff, he told me to come to you for cultural knowledge." Oet stared, and then covered their face with their four hands.</p><p>"Ohhhhh…." They whined. "Ohhh, oh no … I'm so sorry…." </p><p>"No, no it's okay!" I reassured them. "I didn't expect this was going to happen but it's definitely a pleasant surprise." </p><p>"Jirre didn't tell you I'm in heat?" Oet said.</p><p>"No, he didn't. I didn't even know that was a thing you did." </p><p>"Well.." Oet sniffed, partially uncovering their face. "I'm of the third sex. We go into heat. We don't have as much space to store… eggs… as males do…. so we… ohhh." he covered his face again. "so we get real bad urges to … put them into a partner. Occasionally." His eyes were watering a little bit, it almost looked like he was going to cry. "Males' bodies just reabsorb unused eggs and use them for energy. We shed ours. Without a partner it takes longer, like… two days maybe, to shed them all."  I considered my next words carefully.</p><p>"And how long does it take with a partner?"</p><p>"Less than three hours. Well. Depending on the partner. If it's with a male it's less than three hours."</p><p>"What about with a human?" I asked, blushing. It seemed like Oet couldn't help but start tugging at the fabric of my pants again. </p><p>"Wanna find out? Please?" </p><p>"Hell yes." That's all it took. Oet figured out the button on my jeans and slid them off of me, then my underwear. They grabbed my hand and put it on their lower abdomen.</p><p>"Feel." I did. Their belly felt a bit firm, but honestly I didn't have any frame of reference for what it normally felt like, so I didn't say anything. "It's eggs, my belly has eggs, so many eggs. They're small, I promise when I put them in they'll all come out in…. I don't know, an hour maybe. They won't take. You can't fertilize them. Please, please lemme do it." Their dick slid out of its sheath, coated in a slippery substance. It was probably about ten inches long or more and maybe an inch and a half in diameter. It was smooth and virtually featureless except for a vertical slit, which started at the point a male humans' urethra would, but extended downward about two inches. I assumed this was how the eggs were expelled. </p><p>As I'm writing this, Yi, Martha, and Zoe just got back and I gotta stop writing. Oet is asleep in the bathtub and I'm going to go pretend like I was here for a legitimate reason.</p><p> </p><p>++++</p><p>(Don't worry. You're not missing out on any alien sex. Although Paolo can't keep writing, I can, because I created this universe.</p><p>Oet was a bit frantic. They were drooling a bit. They'd been pretty much alone for their heats for most of their life, and this was the first time they were going to be able to deposit their eggs in a host.</p><p>A warm, wet, human host. They almost came right there.</p><p>Paolo let Oet explore his body a bit, finding Oet's intensity and feral enthusiasm to be arousing as all hell. Oet's twenty four fingers went to work, spreading Paolo's folds and trying to find their entrance, which they quickly located with a bit of help from Paolo, who guided their hand down a bit. </p><p>"Soft…" Oet said. "So soft…. ohhhhh…" they put two fingers inside, Paolo's slick making it easy. "Mmmh!" He was so wet, so warm, so soft. Oet wanted to fuck him so bad, fill him with eggs. Paolo was reacting nicely to their touches, and Oet couldn't bear to wait anymore. </p><p>With a little help from Paolo again, they slid their dick inside.</p><p>Oet laid sort of on top of Paolo, holding him close and growling into his ear. Their dick didn't fit in all the way, not yet at least, and Paolo gasped at how gently filling it was, bumping up against his cervix. It was warm and produced it's own slick, making the insertion easy and feel so fucking good.</p><p>Oet couldn't help themself. They held Paolo closer and moved their hips, crying out a bit and making hard, shallow thrusts, only pulling out a couple inches before pressing back inside their host. Their dick throbbed inside of Paolo and spurted a bit of fluid, making both parties cry out. </p><p>The fluid was incredibly hot, not burning, but almost there.</p><p>"What's that?" Paolo managed to say, panting as Oet continued their thrusting.</p><p>"It's," Oet panted, biting back a growl. "It's to relax your incubation organ. So I can- heh!!" They panted, pressing their cock in deeper, "f-fill you will my eggs," </p><p>"I don't have an incubation organ," Paolo said. His head was starting to feel funny, the fluid working quickly. He felt empty deep inside, a feeling he'd never felt before. He whined, wanting Oet somehow deeper inside him.</p><p>"Yeah, you do, silly." Oet said, poking at Paolo's belly. "I-its called… uterus. I think. Paolo, I can't think, I can't…" he whined, "don't make me answer human anatomy trivia, I- oh fuck…" </p><p>Paolo had never actually climaxed from just penetration before, but he was getting pretty close to it now. He held onto Oet and let them use his pussy, desperately curious about biology but also so ready to be filled that his desire to be swollen with eggs overshadowed his desire for knowledge. </p><p>The warm fluid didn't take long to start working. Paolo could feel himself producing more slick, and a strange feeling he couldn't place but also absolutely loved. In reality, the muscles of his cervix were relaxing, along with some uterine muscles, ready to accept eggs. </p><p>"F-fill you…" Oet mumbled, "I'm … gonna fill you with eggs… wanna see you so heavy and swollen with eggs.." </p><p>The head of their dick was finally able to slide into Paolo's womb. Just enough of it fit past his cervix to lock in place. Paolo moaned in pleasure as he came, pussy contracting and squeezing Oet's cock. </p><p>Oet fell silent, save for a growl, as they pressed their body close to Paolo's and began to stuff him full.</p><p>The eggs were not all that large. They were soft and squishy like frog eggs, but slightly smaller than a ping pong ball and much more sturdy. Slowly, the eggs were pushed out of Oet and deep inside Paolo, filling the void in him he didn't know even existed until the effects of the fluid hit. It felt amazing. Each egg slid up his passage, massaging every part of him. Those eggs- or maybe the fluid, he didn't know- kept his orgasm going. It didn't feel as intense as a full orgasm, but it was like a constant wave of pleasure coming with each egg. The fluid was still working its magic, keeping Paolo more aroused than he'd ever been in his life.</p><p>Oet was getting a little insatiable. They pressed deeper into Paolo as his womb accepted their eggs, slowly swelling with the number of them. Their whole dick now fit inside Paolo, having previously been a little too long to fit before his cervix opened up. It felt like heaven. </p><p>They stayed like that for ten minutes, Oet slowly depositing his eggs deep in Paolo. There was about thirty or forty of them to deposit, and Paolo was getting bigger and more swollen by the second. The fluid made it all possible, really. His uterus accepted the eggs, stretching pleasurably to contain them all. His belly was all swollen, and he felt absolutely full to the brim with eggs once Oet was done with him. They lie there panting for a minute, Oet still deep inside Paolo, and Paolo reached up and kissed Oet. Oet wasn't super familiar with kissing, not being from earth and all, but they liked it a lot and accepted the kisses. Once the final egg was in, Oet held Paolo tightly one more time and shot a load of slime into Paolo's womb, pumping it even fuller.</p><p>"Ohh,," Oet exclaimed, relieved to finally be empty of his eggs. He kept pumping slime into Paolo for a good thirty seconds, eventually depositing about a cup of the thick fluid. The purpose of it in mating was to protect the eggs from the host's immune system, but since Paolo was a human, that wasn't really going to work. Their dick retracted back into its sheath, and Paolo lay there in the blanket nest, heavy with eggs and panting. His pussy was still leaking slick, but his cervix had quickly closed to seal in the eggs and the slime. Oet couldn't help but stare at Paolo's swollen belly. Those were their eggs. They put those eggs in Paolo, they made him swell like this. They rubbed Paolo's belly gently, causing him to whimper a bit.</p><p>Oet and Paolo weren't quite done yet. Oet couldn't help but be absolutely tantalized by the slow stream of slick leaking from their partner's puffy pink pussy, almost painfully aroused. His clit was throbbing, and his hands rested on his swollen belly after Oet stopped rubbing it. He looked about four or five months pregnant. He'd never felt more full, he felt safe and stuffed and heavy and he loved it.</p><p>Oet grabbed his legs and spread them apart, licking up the slick between their partner's legs and sucking gently at his clit, eliciting positive reactions from Paolo, who twitched and whined, begging for more. It didn't take long for Paolo to cum again, crying out and squirting onto the bed sheets as a rush of slick poured from his pussy, and Oet licked him clean. </p><p>They curled up together in the blanket nest, Oet as the big spoon, rubbing and massaging their partner's belly. They couldn't keep their hands off it. </p><p>"You're swollen with my eggs," Oet said.</p><p>"My belly feels so heavy…" </p><p>"Good…" Oet replied. It felt squishy but a bit firm due to the amount of eggs inside, and Paolo could feel the eggs shift inside him as his belly sloshed with Oet's slime. </p><p>Paolo was slowly coming down from the high he got off the aphrodisiac fluid Oet had pumped into him in the beginning, becoming a bit more clear headed but no less horny. He still felt full, and tired, and he wanted to stay cuddled up in this blanket nest and have Oet eat him out again after a nap.</p><p>When Paolo woke up, about an hour and a half had passed, and his belly felt tender. Oet evidently knew what was coming next, because they lifted Paolo up, taking him to the bath and running warm water for him. Oet held him gently as the eggs started coming out, which hurt a lot less than Paolo had anticipated. The slime allowed his cervix to open up again painlessly, and the eggs sliding out of him and into the bath felt like a really nice internal massage. He whimpered and moaned as the eggs kept coming, Oet helping him along the way, pressing on and rubbing his belly and whispering things Paolo didn't understand in his ear. It took about twenty minutes to get the eggs out, but by the end of it, Paolo's belly was back to normal, and his pussy was in need of attention. </p><p>He was barely able to stand, and Oet helped him dry off and get back into Martha's bed. His pussy was all puffy, pink, and sensitive, and Oet took great pleasure in licking and sucking at it until Paolo almost passed out. )</p><p> </p><p>++++</p><p>I'm back in my apartment now, and hey, it looks like the narrator handled that sex scene for me. I'll explain the aftermath.</p><p>The high wore off. Oet was absolutely terrified that they'd violated me in some way, and I reassured them over and over that no, they didn't, and that I had wanted it. </p><p>"Are you sure?" They asked, teary eyed.</p><p>"Yes. Oet I could kick your ass, no offense, if I didn't want it you would have known."</p><p>"I guess that makes sense." We stared at each other.</p><p>"So uh. What do I do with the eggs in the bathtub? And how are we going to clean this up?"</p><p>"Oh fuck." Oet said. They didn't really say 'fuck', but they did say the Orckek equivalent of that, and that's good enough for me. "um. I'll handle the eggs. You handle the bed." </p><p>"Good enough for me," I replied. Oet scampered away, saying something about alcohol. </p><p>I took the sheets and the blankets off Martha's bed and folded them up. Realizing I didn't exactly have replacements, I sighed and went over to my apartment to get the sheets off my own bed. It was only fair. I didn't want our captain to have to sleep in the alien juice bed, and our sheets are virtually identical anyway (we just used the ones that were already on our spaceship, no reason to buy new ones) so I was pretty sure she wouldn't notice. Hopefully.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Movie Theater- Yi Lian, PhD</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 5<br/>
Yi Lian, PhD </p><p>It seemed like Oet was not feeling well. They locked themselves in a closet (more like barricaded themselves in, really,) and refused to let anyone in. I had Jirre come in and speak with them to make sure they were alright, and Jirre reassured me that Oet was fine, just going through a biological cycle. I didn't press further due to Jirre seemingly being embarrassed to continue speaking about it. Martha and I decided it would be best to leave them alone for a couple hours, and had the perfect way to do it.</p><p>Zoe was absolutely fascinated with the concept of movies. Apparently on MX0FF, moving pictures had never become a popular form of entertainment. Orckeks found it to be low effort. But apparently not Zoe, because she insisted on watching three movies that day, one after the other, when we told her of our plans to take her to a theater.</p><p>"What's that?" She asked as we arrived at the theater, pointing to a little machine used to dispense popcorn. </p><p>"It's called popcorn. It's a food, kind of. There's a lot of salt on it. It's made by heating up kernels of corn, which then explode into little poofs of starch." Explained Martha. </p><p>"We have to get some." Zoe stated, grabbing a bucket and filling it with the corn. She stuffed a handful into her mouth before I could stop her, and I half expected her to spit it out. From what I've observed so far, Orckeks do not like the way animal products taste at all, with the exception of certain types of fish, and additionally, caviar. Butter, milk, chicken eggs, honey, cheese, any of that was off the table. </p><p>"Zoe, no-"</p><p>"Hey this is good!" She exclaimed. </p><p>"... Really?" I asked. "It's got butter in it." </p><p>"I can't taste it." She decided, continuing to put more corn in her mouth. "Let's go!" </p><p>Sometimes hanging out with Zoe was like trying to control a four year old, despite the fact that Zoe was possibly the oldest individual on this mission. We followed her into the theater and picked out some seats.</p><p>The movies were good, but watching Zoe was better. She was enthused by the experience, scribbling down notes. Martha made sure to remind Zoe that these movies were not documentaries after the fact. </p><p>We went from movie to movie, stopping at the bathrooms in between and trying to ignore getting stared at for bringing an alien with us. </p><p>"Zoe, remember, don't talk to anyone in here." I reminded her. "They aren't going to take kindly to it. Close and lock the door, also."  Thankfully, we didn't have a repeat of the last time Zoe used a public bathroom, in which she just stared at people and tried to talk to them through the stall doors. </p><p>The original plan was to check out the erotic nightclub across the street, but we were all too tired to go there after watching three movies, even Zoe voted to go back to the apartment.</p><p>When we got right outside the apartment, Zoe stopped and looked at the door. </p><p>"Um.." she said, blocking me from opening the door. "Hang on a minute, let me go in first. You guys wait out here, I wanna check on Oet." </p><p>I was confused, but I complied, letting Zoe in first.</p><p> </p><p>+++</p><p>"Oet?" I said, calling out softy once I got inside. "Oet, what did you do???" </p><p>"Oh hey Zoe," I turned around, seeing none other but Paolo walk out of the kitchen. "Sorry, I think they're asleep. I came over here to see if you guys have any turmeric, I need it for a recipe." </p><p>"Paolo, I think you should leave." I said to him. "Oet isn't feeling so great and I think they probably want to be left alone."</p><p>"Oh, okay. Sorry about that." With that, Paolo left. I breathed a sigh of relief. Oet could have seriously hurt him if they'd lost control. </p><p>+++</p><p>"Hey Yi, hey Martha." Paolo said to us as he came through the door. </p><p>"Hey." I said back, and he walked down the hall and disappeared into his apartment.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Sleepover- Dr. Paolo Pareja</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ur welcome for the small amount of belly content.</p>
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    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 6<br/>
Dr. Paolo Pareja, biologist.</p><p>When I got back to the apartment I breathed a sigh of relief. No suspicion, nobody knew. Good. I finished log #4 and then leaned back on my bed, closing my eyes.</p><p>I was exhausted, and feeling so many different emotions that I felt like the only way to process it was to take a shower and cry. Part of me hoped that the aphrodisiac was still working on me and that's why I still wanted to cuddle with Oet, but part of me realized that I was falling hard for them. I sighed, groaning, realizing that the heart wants what it wants, and that I was going to need to do some more research.</p><p>I took my CD out of my pocket and pulled up a book on Orckek physiology that I'd downloaded after I first learned about our mission to NYC. I'd not finished it by any means. In fact, I mostly just flipped through some stuff about temperature regulation and muscle structure. I took a deep breath and clicked on the ever interesting "reproductive physiology" chapter. </p><p>As most things are in the scientific world, a lot of it is jargon, so I'm going to cut out the boring stuff and tell you the interesting parts. The Orckeks have a third sex, which you already know about if you've read this far. They have heat cycles about twice an earth year, depending on nutritional status. Heat cycles are triggered by having a maximum amount of eggs in storage, which ranges from twenty to forty eggs.</p><p> </p><p>Laying eggs, by the way, doesn't equivocate to ejaculation or orgasm in humans, although it does feel really really good. That would be the slime part that comes after it. It is possible for the Orckek to not lay any eggs in their partner and still deposit a pretty large amount of slime into them. I say 'slime' because it's not semen, it's a lubricant substance that is meant to get in between eggs inside the host and keep them protected from the host's immune system, and also allow the eggs to move around inside to host a little more, apparently to make sure the eggs don't get squished and deformed. </p><p>Orckeks can easily prevent a heat cycle from occurring just by getting rid of eggs occasionally. They can do this alone through masturbation or with a partner. Usually a mature Orckek will know when they've got enough eggs to get rid of. Typically, sex drive will dramatically increase when ten or more eggs are present in storage. Indeed, an Orckek cannot expel eggs unless they have around five to ten eggs in storage anyway.</p><p>Now before I get into the disposal process, that warrants a serious explanation from Oet. Why did they wait? Is it too difficult to get rid of eggs on a ship? Were they hiding that they were of the third sex? Is that a bad thing in their culture? Were they in love with me far before we ended up in NYC and were hoping I'd let them stuff me full? I had no idea. I was going to have to ask later. </p><p>Now on to the disposal process. There's a couple ways to get rid of the eggs once they're out of the body, if not fertilized. </p><p>One is alcohol. The eggs dissolve into a pretty harmless fluid if exposed to a substance containing 10% or more alcohol by volume, which evidently goes down a drain with no problem. This is by far the easiest method, if you have access to alcohol, that is.</p><p>Two is compost. Apparently they make really good compost, because Orckek farmers, uh…. They use eggs for that. Crush them up or chop them up, mix them with manure or whatever other fertilizer you're using, and put it on your crops. Congrats. I guess it's not as gross as some of the toxic pesticides humans used to use that give you cancer.</p><p>Three is probably my least favorite, you can eat them. Apparently they're safe to be eaten raw or cooked, but the whole thing really just makes me uncomfortable and I'd rather not serve anyone anything that comes out of a penis, unless that person is my sexual partner and everyone is consenting. I don't know. Bottom line is our cultures are very different. We eat stuff that Orckeks would never even touch, also. </p><p>Is it hypocritical to say I wouldn't want to eat a dick egg even though I really enjoyed getting my belly stuffed with them less than 12 hours ago? Maybe.</p><p>So basically, start to finish, if a third sex Orckek is penetrating their partner during intercourse, it goes like this.</p><p>Dick goes in.<br/>
Release of a small amount of aphrodisiac fluid which relaxes sphincter muscles and causes heightened sexual arousal for both partners.<br/>
Entrance of tip of phallus into womb. However, if the Orckek does not have enough eggs stored to deposit any, there's a good chance this won't be possible. The aphrodisiac fluid will not relax the muscles of the host enough to allow for penetration into the womb, however it will most likely allow passage of slime into the womb due to slight dilation and due to the increased quantity of slime produced with no eggs to deposit.<br/>
Ovipositon. Eggs enter host, if enough are stored.<br/>
Release of slime. This can range from one to four cups of fluid.</p><p>At this point I stopped reading so I could go take a shower. I washed my hair with Sven's expensive shampoo that he specifically told me not to use, just because I felt like I deserved it today. I was still reeling from my experience earlier. </p><p>I kind of missed my big, swollen belly. </p><p>I shook that thought from my mind, turning the water to the coldest setting for a couple seconds to purge myself of sin before turning off the water.</p><p>I got out of the shower and dried my hair with a towel. I liked to keep my hair long, which unfortunately made it take twelve times as long to dry. I breathed deeply, drying myself off and tying the towel around my waist and opening the bathroom door. I almost slipped on the tile and cracked my head open due to the shock of seeing Oet right outside the door. </p><p>"Holy Jesus Christ, Oet, what are you doing here?! You can't just stand outside the door like that, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"</p><p>"Sorry…" they said, looking away. "I'll let you get dressed." They scampered away and presumably into the kitchen. </p><p>I sighed, privately excited that Oet was here. I wanted to be close to them. Quickly, I changed into nightclothes in my bedroom and went to go find Oet.</p><p>"Hey, why don't you come to my room?" I asked them when I found them. They were in the kitchen as I expected, eating an orange without peeling the skin off first. </p><p>"Okay." They said, throwing their half eaten orange in the sink and they followed me into my room. I would have reprimanded them for wasting food, but I knew they were just leaving it there for Ghargu. Ghargu tends to forget how food is stored in the middle of the night and start digging around in the sink, and it's easier to just leave food in there than to wake up, get out of bed and remind him that we have a fruit bowl. </p><p>We sat down on my bed, which was still a bit damp.</p><p>"I'm glad you're here," I said. "I was actually going to call you and ask if you'd wanna sleep over with me."</p><p>"That's… that's what I came over to ask." Oet responded, sounding a bit embarrassed. "Um. I know the bathtub isn't big enough for us both… and I kind of want to try out a human bed. Can I…" They pulled at the covers a bit. "sleep in your bed? With you?"</p><p>"Yes, of course. Please."  I replied, too quickly. We both stared at each other, blushing and not sure what to do.</p><p>"Are you going to go to sleep now?" They asked.</p><p>"I was planning on it." </p><p>"Come here," they said, making the first move to lift the covers and crawl underneath. I followed them. Their body temperature ran a bit hotter than mine, and it was welcome in the cold weather. I curled my body around them, shifting my arm to wrap around their chest. I closed my eyes, and we drifted off to sleep.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Language Barrier- Lin Zexian and Sangita Goj, PhD</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>If you like this so far, please comment!!!  I'm working on getting some cum inflation / more eggpreg stuff written in.</p>
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    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 7<br/>Lin Zexian, PhD</p><p>I'm not going to say that I'm perfect. Everyone has flaws, that's simply the way intelligent life is. I just like to think that I have less flaws than the average person.</p><p>Incidentally, I must come to terms with the fact that this is not the case. </p><p>Before I go any further I would like to share with you the room assignments on this NYC mission.</p><p>Room one: Sven, Paolo, Ghargu, Ungrth.<br/>Room two: Zoe, Oet, Yi, Martha.<br/>Room three: Myself, Sangita, Jirre, Da'atnm.<br/>Room four: Ahmed, Kendra, Sintraii, Yrthon.</p><p>Sangita is an incredibly intelligent woman. I don't think I've ever met a smarter person in my entire life. Yet she's so kind, as well, not nearly as much of an asshole as I am. I'll be the first to admit, I do tend to talk down to those who aren't as scientifically minded as I am, which is almost definitely something I picked up in medical school. There's a reason I specialized in emergency surgery. That way I don't have to talk to patients. </p><p>I get along very well with Jirre. He is very formal, almost overly so, and takes every opportunity to learn more about humans and explain to me things I have questions about regarding his planet and his people. Da'atnm is a different story. They are just…. Insufferable isn't the right word. I don't know what the right word is. They're informal, very laid back. Of course, they're intelligent, they're kind. But I have a hard time connecting with them on a personal level. They frustrate me.</p><p>The reason I'm saying this is because I feel as though I may be learning more about myself on this mission than about the Orckeks. </p><p>All my life I've focused on procuring knowledge. I love to learn. I wanted to force the universe to make sense to me, force PEOPLE to make sense to me. So I threw myself into my studies, first of anatomy, then of medicine, and when all that was done and I still didn't understand people, I got a PhD in anthropology, hoping that would help me. It did, sort of. I understand people a bit more than I did before, when I was a surgeon. But it didn't matter, did it. I was nearly thirty, and had never had any real friends (outside of my very youngest years,) just colleagues and project partners. I guess I coped with that by looking down on people who didn't conform to my standard of what intelligence looks like. And now I'm here, intelligent beyond a shadow of a doubt, but am I smart?</p><p>I literally work full time on a starship. I cross the galaxy and I get PAID to do it. That's every kid's dream, y'know? And I'm living it. And it should feel amazing, but instead I just feel like I did something wrong, like I'm missing something. </p><p>However in recent years I have made deep connections with Sangita. She is really my closest friend, and I treasure her company. I think finally living together in a less scientific environment -aka on Earth instead of in outer space- has allowed me to understand that, and to question my beliefs and the way I see others. </p><p>Before you say anything, no, I'm not going to date her. Not only is she a lesbian, but I don't find anyone sexually attractive. I never have. I'm just not interested. Thanks very much for your concern, though.</p><p> </p><p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 8<br/>Sangita Goj, PhD</p><p>I'm too old for this shit. </p><p>This morning I woke to a CD call from Oet, begging me to take them out today because they wanted my expertise and opinion on an area of interest they had. Seeing nothing too wrong with that, I agreed, and they continued.</p><p>"Great, thank you, Ms. Goj. I want you to take me to the Center for Linguistics Research, if you have access to any of their study spaces."</p><p>"May I ask why?" I replied. </p><p>"Well… See, I've been talking with Paolo recently, and I've noticed that humans tend to use a lot of… what do you call it, figures of speech? Idioms? Figurative language? Either way, I find it very hard to understand and I'd like to learn more about how these speech patterns developed and are used, and how they differ between social groups." </p><p>This sounded like a good enough explanation to me. The linguistics center in NYC was one of my favorite places to study, other than the center in Dubai where I grew up. </p><p>"Yeah, sure." I replied. "I gotta get ready and I'll meet you outside at eight."</p><p>"Sure. Thank you so much." They hung up.</p><p>Little did I know the chaos that was about to ensue.</p><p>We took the subway to the center for linguistics, and when we arrived, Oet went straight for the library. They busied themselves with looking through historical analyses and current dictionaries for the better part of three hours, while I went to speak to some old colleagues and friends who still worked and studied at the Center. We caught up, they introduced me to their research, and asked me about what I was working on as well. </p><p>"I am so glad you asked." I said. "I'm actually working on a partnership with the Orckeks, a mix of an anthropological and biology- centered research project. An Orckek team is spending two years on Earth with us, then we are spending two years on MX0FF with them. I'm here at the Center to help one of my Orckek colleagues research human language patterns." </p><p>"Oh, that's what they're doing?" Replied Bruce, my former research assistant. "I was wondering why there was an alien in the library writing 'get off' in red ink with pronunciation notes in a notebook."  We both shared a good laugh before I realized how long we'd been here, and decided it was time to go get Oet and go somewhere else.</p><p>The halls of the Center were so nostalgic. My first research job was here. I studied here. I opened so many doors here. This is where I broke the world record for learning and becoming fluent in Russian. I sighed, my heels clicking on the marble floors on the way to the main library. I thought about how when this project was over, I might want to go back here and teach some classes. </p><p>I arrived at the library and located Oet, which was easy because they were the only Orckek in there. </p><p>"Hey, it's time to go." I told them, quietly as not to disturb the other researchers and students. They lifted their head and stopped writing for a moment to respond to me.</p><p>"Oh, okay cool. I was just finishing up. Let me return these books and I'll be ready." They finished their sentence, grabbed their books in one strong double-hand, and scampered away. I glanced at their notes. They were messy, not unlike Lin's style. Under a column marked in pink sharpie letters "PAOLO", there were a couple phrases.</p><p>Get off, Slow your roll, Out of character.<br/>Taken/take/took. Knocked up. Blaze. Happy ending, point taken, laughing stock. </p><p>That's cute, I thought. They're trying to understand Paolo better. That explains why they were hanging out with him so much yesterday, I guess. He's just interested in their language usage. </p><p>I tried to tell myself that, at least. I flipped the page, and the notes switched into a common Orckek language.</p><p>'memorize (?) Don't use 2-5, 7-9, records incomplete. Wait to tell Paolo 10-19, ask about 1 etymology.  Demonyms? Check back with CD download. Explain anatomy clearly + without jargon.'</p><p>Alien-human relationships were not rare. But I hoped that Paolo wouldn't be unprofessional enough to hook up with his colleague. I reminded myself that this probably was nothing and I was reading too far into this. In fact, I came to think I may have been projecting my feelings for Zoe, even. I closed Oet's notes just in time for them to return.</p><p>The subway ride home was uneventful by new York standards. Oet thanked me for my time and told me that they were going to put away their notebook and go back out on a planned trip with Paolo.</p><p>"Where are you going?"</p><p>"Paolo said he'd take Zoe and I to check out the statue of liberty and explain some history." They replied. </p><p>"Oh, well, have fun!"</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Liberty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Lore time</p>
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    <p>GALACTIC GROUPING LOG 9<br/>Dr. Paolo Pareja, Biologist.</p><p> </p><p>When I woke up, Oet was gone. I mentally kicked myself for missing them and forced myself out of bed to get ready. I picked out some jeans and a hoodie, admittedly a pretty retro style, but I didn't mind. People have dressed like this for centuries, and besides, I don't really enjoy the complexity of new fashion. </p><p>I checked my messages on my CD real quick and saw a message sent by Oet about an hour ago. My heart picked up speed for a bit before I flushed with shame. God, I was falling hard.</p><p>'Paolo,<br/>I'm with Ms. Goj at the linguistics center. I'll return soon. <br/>Take me to the statue in the water when I get back. I heard it's an ancient relic for the Americans. Zoe wants to go too.<br/>We should have some fun later. <br/>Bye.'</p><p>Well, I had that to look forward to. I felt a pang of some unrecognizable feeling, primal and deep within me. It startled me how forward Oet had been, but honestly I wasn't complaining.</p><p>I really did miss being heavy with eggs... I shook the thought from my mind. </p><p>Checking my other messages, I saw that Sintraii had cancelled on me for the day. I was going to take her to a weed shop and explain ancient drug politics to her, but according to her message she had broken her ankle and instead needed to get that fixed. She told me that Yrthon had suggested she see a veterinarian. I sent my condolences. </p><p>Maybe I could take Zoe to the weed store instead, if I was taking her to the Statue of Liberty anyway. I called her up.</p><p>"Hey Zoe, are you busy?"</p><p>"Um, a little bit." She replied. "Why?"</p><p>"Oh, I'm sorry. If you weren't busy I was going to take you to check out an Earth store, but if you're doing something else-"</p><p>"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm with Sintraii at the veterinarian. She needed some moral support."</p><p>"Oh yeah, no, I understand." I said. "I hope you can get her ankle fixed, if not I'm sure Dr. Zexian can figure something out. He's not trained for Orckeks, but he does some pretty cool stuff. He took out my appendix actually."</p><p>"That's pretty cool," replied Zoe. "I'll tell Sintraii." I heard another voice in the background say 'you'll tell me what?', and then Zoe hung up. </p><p>I put my CD in my pocket again, reading back over the message Oet sent me. Reading it with a clearer head, I realized it was possible that Oet didn't know what they were saying. I tried not to get my hopes up.</p><p>I'm not going to lie, I was really excited anyway. Knowing myself, I knew it would be best to take my mind off the excitement and just go for a walk or something while waiting for Oet to get back. So that's what I did. I put on my coat and shoes and walked the streets of NYC for at least an hour before I realized that I wasn't any less excited. I wandered into a shoe store at some point, considering buying myself a pair of waterproof boots for when I went to MX0FF in a couple years. I left after remembering that the Orckeks were going to give us shoes that would probably be better for their terrain than anything we had on earth. </p><p>I decided to walk back to the apartment. I did probably have some paperwork to do somewhere, after all. Walking back proved to be a difficult task. My sense of direction has never been amazing, and I ended up getting a little bit lost before re-finding my way. </p><p>Along this way, I may have possibly went into a local sex toy store and picked up some "leather cleaner".  Don't even worry about it.</p><p>I got back to the apartment and stored the small yellow bottle in a box under my bed, and was almost immediately interrupted by Oet coming into the room, evidently back from their linguistics adventure. </p><p>"Ready to go?" They said, not giving me a chance to say hi.</p><p>"Go? Oh, yeah. You wanted to see the statue of liberty, right?"</p><p>"It's the one in the water."</p><p>"Yeah, it's in the water. I can't think of any other important statues in the water in New York." I said. From what I'd heard, the statue of liberty used to be on a pedestal that stood a couple stories out of the water. During the climate disaster, water levels had climbed higher, and the water came up to the statues' feet. It had been a gift from the French.</p><p>We set off immediately after I put my shoes back on and walked down to the dikes. Another remnant from a lost era, I suppose. Before the flooding, NYC didn't need these structures. Only small parts of the city were protected by them anymore, though. Failures associated with poor construction had essentially drowned out many areas of the city, which was now fragmented by the sea. New York used to be much smaller back then, though. </p><p>I took Oet up the elevator for the central dike so we could stand on top and look out at the water, and see Lady Liberty. We stood and looked at the statue, and I explained to Oet what I just explained to you.</p><p>"So these walls weren't here always?" Oet asked.</p><p>"No, they weren't. Our species…. Well, at least our species used to have some problems with caring about each other. Things got to a point where our governments didn't really have jurisdiction over their land anymore, it was pretty much just corporate interests. And those corporate interests had no incentive to stop destroying our planet for money." I hadn't been alive back then, of course. I wasn't even alive yet when we made first contact with intelligent life outside our planet. But I still felt a sense of loss, like there was something I was missing because I wasn't around before the disaster hit. "Global powers didn't come to a consensus on what to do about rising global temperatures soon enough. They tried, but it was too little too late. About half the world population died within five years from famine, disease, and poisoning, and almost another half of the remaining population died as a result of warfare following that. But we figured some things out, and came back stronger."</p><p>"Wow." Oet said after a long pause. "I don't think anything like that happened on my planet. The worst I can think of is about three hundred years ago, there was an asteroid strike that left part of our northern hemisphere uninhabitable for a couple decades."</p><p>"That's pretty bad too," I said. "But y'know, there's nothing we can do about it now. It's all over. We lost a lot of habitable land and got sent back easily four hundred years in technology development, but I'm here now, our species still exists, and things are getting better. Hopefully the flooding will go down eventually. I don't think anyone alive remembers what it was like before the floods. And I'm sure your people had a tough time regrouping as well."</p><p>"Um.." they said. " Well. Not really. But that's a long story. We knew about the impact for a while and everyone evacuated before it hit."</p><p>We were both silent for a while, looking out at the water. I didn't feel as excited to be hanging out with my crush anymore. A profound sadness had come to settle in me, something generational and deep. </p><p>"It started with a plague." I said, finally.</p>
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